Friday lunchtime lecture - Being a Data Magpie

Friday 04 March 2016, 1:00pm - 1:00pm

Friday lunchtime lectures are for everyone and are free to attend. You bring your lunch, we provide tea and coffee, an interesting talk, and enough time to get back to your desk.

Data doesn’t just exist on our phones and devices. It's all around us – in the city, on signs, road markings and equipment – and it's been there for some time. In this talk, ODI Senior Consultant Leigh Dodds will explain how to be a data magpie, and find small pieces of data that are shared – whether deliberately or accidentally – in our cities. Leigh will also explain how looking at data in its natural habitat can give us insights into our data infrastructure and what the future may bring.

Leigh is an experienced software engineer, product manager and technical consultant. He spent 10 years working in the publishing industry dealing with data integration and management issues. As CTO of Publishing Technology’s scholarly division, Leigh was responsible for designing an innovative publishing framework based on semantic web technology. On moving to Talis Group in 2011, Leigh looked after their “Data as a Service” products, overseeing product development and launching their Linked Data consulting business.

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Live stream

If you’re unable to attend this lunchtime lecture you don’t need to miss out. You can watch the talk via a live stream here.

About our Friday lunchtime lectures

With a broad range of topics in open data such as tracking government expenditure, British landscape mapping and creating art, there’s bound to be something that interests you.

The sessions run from 1pm to 1.45pm weekly during UK school term-times, with informal networking until 2pm. Each lecture lasts for around 20 minutes, leaving time for questions afterwards. The lectures don't require any specialist knowledge, but are focused around communicating the meaning and impact of open data in all areas of life.

Each week the lectures are streamed live on YouTube and then uploaded to our YouTube and Vimeo channels. You can also download the Friday lunchtime lectures as a podcast on iTunes.

You can follow the lectures and contribute to the discussion using #ODIFridays on Twitter